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From High Seas to Highway Robbery: How Civil Asset Forfeiture Became One of the Worst Forms of Government Overreach

Perhaps one of the most frequent questions FreedomWorks gets from our grassroots community when they hear the many stories of innocent people whose property has been wrongfully taken from them by the government is, how a policy that so blatantly violates the Constitution came to pass? For many, civil asset forfeiture is a relatively new example of government overreach. When they hear the stories, they are outraged.

With these questions in mind, the FreedomWorks Foundation got to work on a new publication, From High Seas to Highway Robbery: How Civil Asset Forfeiture Became One of the Worst Forms of Government Overreach. This publication looks at the roots of civil asset forfeiture in 17th and 18th Century maritime law, the perverse profit motive it presents in modern and current law, how it violates due process, abuse of forfeiture proceeds, and offers basic reforms that will mitigate, if not end, abuse.

While this document focuses primarily on federal civil asset forfeiture laws, in June, the FreedomWorks Foundation released a scorecard, Civil Asset Forfeiture: Grading the States, that offers a look at state laws. All of FreedomWorks' civil asset forfeiture-related content is available here.

As civil asset forfeiture reforms advance in state legislature and, hopefully, in Congress, it is important to know why this is a bad policy that tramples on constitutionally protected liberties and what reforms are necessary to ensure the practice is used to target those who are convicted of crimes. From High Seas to Highway Robbery: How Civil Asset Forfeiture Became One of the Worst Forms of Government Overreach simply provides more information to the FreedomWorks community so they can educate themselves and fellow activists on the dangers this pernicious policy represents to innocent Americans and their property.

As the 2018 midterm elections approach, voters in all 50 states will cast their ballots for members of Congress and many will cast their ballots for senators. Some ballots will also include measures independent of the national elections. These are, for example, gubernatorial races, as well as ballot initiatives to amend state constitutions.

One sentencing reform provision considered for inclusion in a reform package as part of a deal to move President Trump’s priority legislation, the FIRST STEP Act, through the Senate is a set of modifications to 21 U.S.C. 841, addressing drug penalties for offenses involving controlled and counterfeit substances.

Over the past several months, there has a been a campaign against the FIRST STEP Act, H.R. 5682, waged by a handful of reactionaries whose mindset is better suited for the 1980s. It has been suspected, although not confirmed, that the talking points against the bill were coming from the Department of Justice (DOJ). We now know this to be an indisputable fact.

Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee want to know why the Department of Justice (DOJ) has denied petitions by Americans whose money was seized by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The seized money was subject to federal civil asset forfeiture hearings in which the individual from whom the money was taken had to prove that it wasn’t connected to any wrongdoing.

In 2015, Utah legislators passed and Governor Gary Hulburt signed into law a package, HB 348, to reform its state criminal justice system. This package included new concepts such as prioritizing prison space for people with serious and violent offenses as well as strengthening community supervision, both of which have yielded substantial public safety returns.

On behalf of FreedomWorks’ activist community, I urge you to contact your Senators and urge them to vote YES on limited government amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), H.R. 5515. These two amendments would restore much needed congressional oversight on investment policymaking and guarantee due process of law for American citizens in accordance with the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

The issue of eminent domain is receiving renewed interest thanks to a new movie about Susette Kelo, whose property was taken by the City of New London, Connecticut to enhance the city’s tax base. The movie, Little Pink House, was recently released in select theaters across the country. Conservative columnist George Will wrote that the movie, which was directed by Courtney Balaker and co-produced by Ted Balaker, “will win the Oscar for best picture if Hollywood’s political preening contains even a scintilla of sincerity about speaking truth to power.”

Retroactive application of the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA) which became law in 2010 and reduced the sentencing disparity for crack and powder cocaine from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1 has been a hotly contested issue in the criminal justice space. The primary concern from those opposed to retroactivity, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is that allowing offenders to petition the court for a review and reduction in their sentence could result in violent criminals being released to the streets, putting public safety at risk.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, H.R. 1625, is packed full of legislative priorities for leadership and other items to get enough votes for passage. Most of what was negotiated and slipped into the Consolidated Appropriations Act, known as the “omnibus,” behind closed doors is bad for taxpayers or just bad policy. Unfortunately, amendments that were previously passed by the House to prevent the Department of Justice from ramping up its use of civil asset forfeiture were not included in the bill.